VOORMEZELE ENCLOSURES

VOORMEZEELE is a village and commune in the Province of West Flanders, 3 Km South of Ypres, between the roads to Messines and Kemmel. The nearest important railway station is at Ypres.

The "Enclosures" (at one time four in number, but now reduced to three) are immediately North-West of the village, at the junction of the roads to Ypres and Kruisstraathoek. They were originally regimental groups of graves, begun very early in the War and gradually increased until the village and the cemeteries were captured by the enemy (after very heavy fighting) on the 29th April 1918. 

VOORMEZELE ENCLOSURES No. 1 and 2 CEMETERY

(CWGC Ref 5/56)

Typical regimental burial ground, No.'s 1 and 2 now treated as one cemetery.

VOORMEZELE ENCLOSURES No. 3 CEMETERY

(CWGC Ref 5/56)

Voormezeele Enclosure No.3, the largest of these burial grounds, was begun by Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry in February 1915. Their graves are in Plot III, the other Plots from I to IX are the work of other units, or pairs of units, and include a few graves of October 1918. Plots X to XII are of a more general character. Plots XIII to XVI, containing 1,215 graves, were made after the Armistice by, the concentration of isolated graves and smaller cemeteries, and at the same time the French graves (of April and September, 1918) were removed to a French cemetery. The concentrated graves cover the months from January 1915 to October, 1918, and they include those of many men of the 15th Rants and other units who recaptured this ground early in September 1918.

The Enclosure contains the graves of 1,481 soldiers from the United Kingdom, 100 from Canada, eight from Australia, two from New Zealand, one from South Africa, one whose unit in our forces is not known and one German soldier. The unnamed graves number 612, and special memorials are erected to twelve soldiers from the United Kingdom and three from Australia, known or believed to be 'buried among them. Five other special memorials record the names of soldiers from the United Kingdom, buried in Pheasant Wood Cemetery, whose graves could not be found on concentration.

The Enclosure covers an area of 5,772 m². It is bounded by a brick wall and stands among houses and gardens.

The Register records particulars of 1,000 War Dead, existing or commemorated in the cemetery.

The burial grounds concentrated into Voormezeele Enclosure No.3 included the following:

EIKHOF F ARM CEMETERY, VOORMEZEELE, two kilometres South-East of the village, containing the graves of 19 soldiers from the United Kingdom who fell in June 1917.

ELZENWALLE CHATEAU CEMETERY, VOORMEZEELE, in the grounds of the Chateau, a little West of the Ypres-Kemmel road. It contained one French grave of January, 1915 and those of30 soldiers from the United Kingdom (mainly 1st Wilts and H.A.C., who fell in February-June 1915).

HARINGHEBEEK CEMETERY, KEMMEL, by the Haringhebeek, West of Vandenberghe Farm, containing the graves of 13 Irish soldiers who fell on the 7th June 1917.

PHEASANT WOOD CEMETERY, VOORMEZEELE, in the North-East corner of the Wood, just South of the Damstrasse, containing the graves of 13 soldiers from the United Kingdom who fell in July and August 1917.

VIJVERHOEK BRASSERIE CEMETERY, VLAMERTINGHE, on the Ypres-Dickebusch road, by the Dickebuschbeek. Here were buried sixteen soldiers from the United Kingdom, one from Canada and one from New Zealand-, who fell in April, May and October 1918.